Ministry of Justice

Prison Sentences

Lord Moylan: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish data on (1) the number of offenders subject to indeterminate sentences for public protection who became eligible for licence review over the past year, and (2) the number of those who applied for a licence review over the same period.

Lord Moylan: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many offenders subject to indeterminate sentences for public protection will be eligible for a licence review each year for the next five years.

Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: We do not publish the data at the present time; however, we continue to review processes to allow the publication of more information in the future.The accumulative number of IPP offenders, who will become eligible for a licence review each year for the next five years is set out below. Table: IPP cases with at least one release by 30/09/2021 by eligibility to apply for licence termination:YearNumber of cases eligibleEnd of 2021403End of 2022850End of 20231,353End of 20241,771End of 20252,272End of 20262,829Notes:1. Number of Cases Eligible is Cumulative (i.e. cases eligible in 2021 will also be eligible in 2022 etc).2. Data is taken from administrative sources (nDelius) and subject to the inherent inaccuracy in any such large-scale data source.Statistics on the prison population are routinely published as part of the quarterly Offender Management Statistics on Gov.uk - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly

Prisoners: Ethnic Groups

Baroness Whitaker: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byLord Wolfson of Tredegar (HL3924) on 24 November, what plans they have, if any, to introduce an ethnic group for those in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in statistics related to people in prisons.

Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: There are no current plans to alter the ethnic groups for the regular quarterly published data on the prison population which formed the basis of the answer to HL3924. The broad categories included in the information released are in line with current guidance from the Race Disparity Unit of the Cabinet Office. Numbers self-designating as ‘Irish Traveller or Gypsy’ are published as part of a more detailed data set which are released annually as part of the series Offender Management Statistics Quarterly. The most recent release of this data formed part of the January to March 2021 issue, published in July 2021. Figures were included in Table A1.9ii of the Annual Prison Population: 2021 document. This showed that as of 30 June 2021 1,365 prisoners self-designated as Irish Traveller or Gypsy. This number was further broken to show that 1,337 were male and 28 were female.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Kyrgyzstan: Foreign Relations

Viscount Waverley: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, for the Prime Minister to extend an invitation to the Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic to mark 30 years of bilateral relations and to support a continuing commitment to democracy, sovereignty and national development in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: The United Kingdom looks forward to celebrating 30 years of bilateral relations with the Kyrgyz Republic in 2022. Plans for how best to mark this important occasion are still under consideration. We continue to strongly support the democratic development of Kyrgyzstan, as the Minister for Europe and Americas reiterated when she met the outgoing Kyrgyz Ambassador, Edil Baisalov, on 2 December.

Summit for Democracy

The Marquess of Lothian: To ask Her Majesty's Government what are their priorities for the Summit for Democracy in December; and who will be attending on behalf of the UK.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The PM welcomes this initiative from President Biden to help rejuvenate the world's democracies and defend them from harm. The summit, with its themes of defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights, offers an opportunity to promote the Open Societies commitments made as part of our G7 Presidency.The UK is working closely with the United States on preparations for the virtual Summit in December, including finalizing arrangements for UK attendance. The Prime Minister will lead the UK's engagement through a summit statement. As full details of the Summit emerge, we will consider further opportunities for UK engagement.

Ethiopia: Christianity

Lord Patten: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the freedom of religion for Christians in Ethiopia.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: We are extremely concerned by reports of widespread human rights violations and abuses in Ethiopia committed by all sides in the conflict. The Foreign Secretary spoke to Deputy Prime Minister Demeke on 5 November. Our Ambassador in Addis Ababa spoke to Prime Minister Abiy on 28 October. The Minister for Africa spoke at a Westminster Hall Debate on 3 November and highlighted the horrific scale and nature of human rights abuses against civilians as reported by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. It is essential that all those responsible for human rights violations and abuses be held to account. All parties must implement the report's recommendations and ensure that victims have access to support. We have stressed the need for Ethiopia to safeguard its incredible diversity of faith and identity in order to uphold freedom of religion and belief.The Foreign Secretary, our Ambassador in Addis Ababa and the Minister for Africa continue to raise human rights issues in our discussions with the Ethiopian Government and more broadly we have reminded all warring parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The Minister for Africa raised our concerns about ethnic profiling and detentions with Ethiopian State Minister Redwan on 18 November, and made clear our concerns about hate speech in her tweet of 30 November. Our priority is to ensure that Ethiopians, irrespective of ethnicity, religion and political affiliation, receive life-saving aid and that humanitarian access to areas affected by conflict and insecurity is restored.

Africa: Coronavirus

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reported remarks of the co-chair of the African Union Vaccine Delivery Alliance regarding distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa; and what steps will they take to reduce the likelihood of further mutations of the virus due to a lack of vaccine availability.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: We share the concerns raised by Dr Alakija, co-chair of the African Union Vaccine Delivery Alliance, on the inequity in COVID-19 vaccine coverage across Africa compared with the rest of the world. That is why under our G7 Presidency, we gained commitment from G7 Leaders to share at least 870 million surplus doses with low- and middle- income countries by 2022. This includes 100 million by the UK. As of 29 November, over 6 million UK donated doses have gone to 14 African countries. The UK has also donated £548 million to the COVAX Facility, set up to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for 92 low- and middle-income countries, 46 of which are in Africa.To reduce the likelihood of further mutations, we will continue to push for accelerated vaccine coverage through our existing support. We are also supporting work beyond vaccines to strengthen global surveillance, including through the UK Health Security Agency's New Variant Assessment Platform. This will help identify new variants of interest and support a rapid response.

Department for Work and Pensions

Departmental Coordination: Disability

Baroness Garden of Frognal: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to publish the minutes of the most recent cross-departmental meeting of Disability Champions.

Baroness Garden of Frognal: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the main objectives of the cross departmental meeting of Disability Champions.

Baroness Garden of Frognal: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether attendees of the cross departmental meeting of Disability Champions need to report the number of disabled people employed in each department.

Baroness Stedman-Scott: At the request of the Prime Minister, the first Ministerial Disability Champions were appointed in summer 2020 to drive the development and delivery of the National Disability Strategy (NDS).Their objectives include championing disabled people and driving the delivery of the NDS in their respective departments. All champions contributed a statement of intent, and a specific range of commitments published in the strategy. They are not required to report on the number of disabled people employed in their department. In the strategy, the Cabinet Office Disability Unit committed to publishing an annual report in summer 2022, which will detail the progress made against the commitments, including efforts to rebuild the economy and society post pandemic, and to which the Ministerial Disability Champions will have direct input. The most recent Ministerial Disability Champions meeting was on 16 November 2021 where the ministers discussed the progress of NDS commitment delivery; championing disability policies within departments; engaging with Disability and Access Ambassadors; and Disability Confident. The government does not plan to publish the minutes from champion meetings, but as with previous meetings, will update the Ministerial Disability Champions GOV.UK page with discussion highlights.

Home Office

Crime: Victims

Lord Hylton: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the practice of referring to proposed Home Affairs legislation by the name of individual victims of crime; and if they have made any such assessment, whether they plan to cease this practice.

Baroness Williams of Trafford: In bringing forward changes to the criminal law, it is fitting that we honour those who have campaigned for justice on behalf of a victim of crime by informally naming a new law after the victim concerned. Such colloquial naming of a new law is not used in the legislation itself. We have no plans to change this practice.

Contracts: Private Sector

Lord Randall of Uxbridge: To ask Her Majesty's Government which private providers in each region of England have contracts to provide (1) accommodation, (2) welfare, or (3) financial support, for asylum seekers.

Baroness Williams of Trafford: Accommodation for supported asylum seekers is arranged by private sector providers through contractual arrangements with the Home Office. AASC: Serco, provision of asylum accommodation in NW and Midlands;AASC: Mears, asylum accommodation in Scotland, NI and NEYH;AASC: Clearsprings, asylum accommodation in South and Wales;AIRE: Migrant Help, Provision of support services for asylum seekers; Details of these contracts can be found on gov.uk under 'New asylum accomodation contracts awarded'. All asylum seekers have access to a 24/7 AIRE (Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility) service provided for the Home Office by an independent third party, Migrant Help. Prepaid Finance Services are contracted to provide Asylum Seekers with ASPEN cards.

Hamas

Lord Hylton: To ask Her Majesty's Government what new evidence they used to inform their decision to list Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

Baroness Williams of Trafford: The Government cannot comment on specific intelligence matters. It has been longstanding policy to keep the list of proscribed organisations under review. Hamas’ listing has been extended to cover the totality of the organisation, following an assessment that the distinction between the military and political wings is artificial and that Hamas is currently concerned in terrorism. Full details can be found at the Explanatory Memorandum to the Order on the legislation.gov.uk website.

Cabinet Office

Military Alliances: Australia and USA

Lord West of Spithead: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to appoint someone to report directly to the National Security Advisor (1) on military co-operation with Australia and America, and (2) to help Australia develop SSN submarines.

Lord True: The National Security Adviser has appointed Whitehall leads to report to him directly on the UK’s collaboration with the US and Australia on AUKUS. The Ministry of Defence reports regularly to the National Security Adviser on the programme of work, conducted alongside US and Australian colleagues, to identify the optimum way to deliver new submarine capability to the Royal Australian Navy.

Ports: Christmas

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent steps they have taken, together with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, to help prevent disruption at UK ports during the Christmas 2021 period.

Lord Frost: The Government has engaged extensively with ports and carriers to ensure they are ready for the end of staged customs controls. We are confident that arrangements are in place to ensure the continued flow of trade over the Christmas period.​The Government has invested £470 million for new infrastructure to carry out customs and biosecurity checks, including £200 million Port Infrastructure Fund grants for ports to build infrastructure onsite and £270 million for Inland Sites.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Village Halls: Broadband

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether Benson Village Hall in Wiltshire will benefit from their Project Gigabit.

Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay: We are backing Project Gigabit with £5 billion of taxpayers’ money, so that hard-to-reach communities are not left out - starting to level up now, not waiting for the end of the commercial rollout, and adding to the 600,000 rural homes and businesses already covered by gigabit connection with our support.As set out in our latest publication, ‘Project Gigabit Delivery Plan: Autumn update, Wiltshire is included in Phase 2 (Lot 30) of Project Gigabit. This project aims to give all residents and businesses in Wiltshire access to future-proofed very high speed connectivity. Procurement for Lot 30 is planned to launch between August and October 2022, before a contract commencement date of July to September 2023.In the meantime, Benson Village Hall can investigate the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS). As part of Project Gigabit, the Government is investing up to £210 million in the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) to support rural communities with the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections.The scheme provides a micro-grant of up to £1,500 for residents and up to £3,500 for businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband. It enables households and businesses to club together to increase the total subsidy of a project to cover most or all of the costs for installation to eligible areas.I am pleased to confirm that, having checked the eligibility of Benson Village Hall in Wiltshire on the GBVS website, it appears that Benson Village Hall is likely to be eligible for the scheme. Further information on how the scheme works is available on our website.

Community Centres and Village Halls: Broadband

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefit of village halls and community centres in rural areas having broadband access.

Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay: Building Digital UK (BDUK) has a growing evidence base of the importance of connectivity in rural communities delivered through BDUK programmes, including community Hubs such as village halls and community centres. For instance, our recent research on the impact of gigabit connectivity in rural schools finds there to be time saved and improved pupil experience with high-speed broadband access. BDUK anticipates the benefits to village halls and community centres to follow similar themes in a different context - for example, for local businesses and administration.Approximately 10% of public sector buildings receiving subsidised connections through our Local Full Fibre Networks Programme (LFFN) are community centres and/or village halls. BDUK has an ongoing programme of evaluating the benefits of its different broadband interventions, and initial outcomes for the LFFN programme should be available in 2023.Academics at the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE) are also currently researching the benefits of digitally connected village halls and the barriers associated. Their research so far suggests that, following the pandemic, more communities would like their village halls to have an internet connection and that it can broaden the scope of activities provided by the halls. The research will be published on the NICRE website once complete.